ORACLE CHALLENGER SERIES TENNIS FROM CHICAGO WTA | ATP PLAYERS • SEPT. 2-9

Written by: Staff on 2nd September 2018

ORACLE CHALLENGER SERIES TENNIS FROM CHICAGO WTA | ATP PLAYERS • SEPT. 2-9 |

Just TWO days until the @OracleChallngrs – Chicago! #DYK Nicole Gibbs, who is in qualifying draw, is a two-time @NCAA singles champion while at @StanfordWTennis. Come see stellar players like @Gibbsyyyy in #Chicago. Admission is free! – Photo by @OracleTennis via Twitter.

Oracle Challenger Series Chicago Awards 2018 Wild Cards

Tournament Partners with USTA Foundation to Host Red Ball Competition for Under-Privileged Youth

Thirteen Americans, as well as three-time ATP World Tour winner and former top 20 ranked player Andreas Seppi, were among those awarded wild cards into the main and qualifying draws of the Oracle Challenger Series Chicago tournament to be held September 2 – 9, 2018 at the XS Tennis Village.

Seppi, currently ranked No. 51 in the world, has received a wild card into the main draw, along with Americans Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, the 2017 NCAA Singles Champion from the University of Virginia; Tommy Paul, who had a breakout year in 2017 that included quarterfinal appearances in Atlanta and Washington, as well as his first career Masters 1000 victory in Cincinnati; and former University of Virginia standout JC Aragone.

On the women’s side, World No. 37 Danielle Collins – the 2018 Oracle Challenger Series winner at Newport Beach who also reached the Round of 16 at Indian Wells and the semifinals in Miami – was granted a wild card into the WTA main draw, along with fellow Americans Varvara Lepchenko, who has represented the United States in both the Olympic Games (2012) and Fed Cup (2013) and was once ranked as high as No. 19 in the world; Francesca Di Lorenzo, who recorded her first career Grand Slam match win at the US Open this year and was the 2018 recipient of the Oracle US Tennis Awards; Lauren Davis, who has one WTA Tour title to her name (2017 Auckland) to go along with two finals appearances (2016 Washington DC and Quebec City); and 23-year-old Allie Kiick, a cancer survivor making a comeback to the Tour after a battle with melanoma.

In action today is Men’s Qualifying Draw wild card recipient American William Blumberg, a current sophomore at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill who was named the ITA Men’s Tennis Rookie of the Year and Most Outstanding Player at 2017 NCAA Tournament.

Americans Michaela Gordon, a 2017-2018 ITA All-American and the ITA National Rookie of the Year at Stanford; former Arizona State standout Jacqueline Cako; and Jamie Loeb, winner of seven career ITF singles titles, received wild cards into the Women’s Qualifying Draw and will begin play today, along with 16-year-old American Naomi Cheong, who will be playing in her first Tour-level event.

In addition, Oracle has partnered with the USTA Foundation and the local National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) chapters in Chicago to provide funding and opportunities to under-served youth. Approximately 100 kids, 8-to-10 years old, from the four Chicago-area NJTL chapters will come to XS Tennis Village on Saturday, September 8 to participate in a Red Ball Competition to foster tennis skills and sportsmanship.

The 2018-2019 Oracle Challenger Series will begin in Chicago and culminate at the 2019 BNP Paribas Open, the largest ATP World Tour and WTA combined two-week event in the world held annually at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The two American women and two American men who accumulate the most points over the course of the Series will receive wild cards into their respective singles main draws in Indian Wells. The tournament marks the first professional tennis tournament to be held in the city of Chicago since the 1990s.

About the Oracle Challenger Series

The Oracle Challenger Series, which was created to offer American tennis players unparalleled opportunities to secure both prize money and ranking points, builds on Oracle’s commitment to help support U.S. tennis for men and women at both the collegiate and professional level. The Series features equal prize money in a groundbreaking tournament format that combines the ATP Challenger Tour and WTA 125K Series.

The Series offers an unmatched potential prize of wild cards into the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open, widely considered the top combined ATP World Tour and WTA professional tennis tournament in the world, for the top two American male and female finishers.

Editors Note • Dutch Player and Painter Michaela Krajicek is in the Windy City. First time and she is loving it.

Ladies Qualies and main draw doubles with Parmentier.

Topics: 10sballs, Atp, Chicago, Oracle Challenger Series, Oracle Tennis, Tennis, Wta

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